Huge pay hike: Captain Virat Kohli likely to get Rs 12 crore plus salary

Indian cricketers are set to recieve a major pay hike when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announces the new central contracts for 2017-18. And captain Virat Kohli will be the highest earner among them all.

Recently, Kohli, MS Dhoni and head coach Ravi Shastri had a meeting with BCCI's Committee of Administrators (CoA) to discuss about pay hike for India's international cricketers. It was a "fruitful" meeting, according to CoA chairman Vinod Rai. The Futures Tours Programme (FTP) was also discussed in Delhi.

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Today (December 4), a report in "Mumbai Mirror" claimed Grade A Indian players are set to receive Rs 12 crore per year. The existing central contracts list saw Grade A cricketers getting Rs 2 crore per annum.

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The Grade B players will get Rs 8 crore and Grade C Rs 4 crore. The previous pay for them was Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh respectively. Captain, will however, receive more than Rs 12 crore per annum, according to the report.

Quoting a source, the newspaper said it was "pointed out" to CoA that England and Australian cricketers received around Rs 12 crore per year from their cricket boards and it was necessary for India to match that.

With regard to match fees, as of now, Indian cricketers receive Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI and Rs 3 lakh for Twenty20 International.

Kohli, Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay are the seven cricketers who are in Grade A at the moment.

Here is the existing BCCI contracted players' list, till September 30, 2017

Grade A (Rs 2 crore)

Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay.

Grade B (Rs 1 crore)

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh.

Grade C (Rs 50 lakh)

Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant.